The Washington critic., 1887-10-24
TOPICS OF THE DAY

10 tno lh'est soCictJ hepithut iOr tuc
honors Of the stage. says Philadelphia
Press special. She is tall young
lady, little angular and awkward from
rapid growth and better known for her
athletic abilities than for any particular
mark she has made at Washington re.
ceptions. She sits well In the saddle
and rides at good pace over the
lovely roads near the family place at
"Edgewood." She is hardly to be
considered handsome. Her complex.
Ion is dark. her wavy hair Of an ex-
tremely dark shade Of chestnut aud her
countcnance more expressive of firm.
ness and determination than Of fem.
inine weakness. Her handsome fea.
lures are her wonderful dark brown
eyes and her teeth. She has all Mrs.
Cleveland's faculty of becoming both
pleasant and impressive as soon as she
begins to talk. She is living now at
"Edgewood," fine old fashioned
country house. some two miles distant
from the city, in the direction of the
Soldiers Home, and in the library
there this morning she talked very
freely about her plans and prospects.
"When do you intend to make
your debut2" "Well," with smile,
II shall hardly make any debut In
the sense in which the word is
usually understood. I shall seek some
subordinate position In good company
and work my way up. In the mean
time have been studying the literature
Of the profession. would like, II pos.
sible, to spend year at the Paris Con.
servatoire, where l could have the ad
vantage of the Instructions of Coquelin.
You zee was educated In Europe. and
am quite familiar with Paris and the
French style OF acting" "What line
of characters have you marked out for
your future career ?" 81 shall be
tragedIenne, taking all the range of
Shakspeare's female characters have
the greatest ambition to play Lazy
Macbeth. Usually actresses walt until
they are somewhat passee, and have
ceased to be attractive In juvenile char
acters, before they essay that role; but
my idea Of her Is vastly different
from that. / believe she had far
more womanly character than that
usually attributed to her. that she was
personally attractive, and that she &C.
Quired and retained her hold upon
Macbeth more by her feminine quail.
ties than her masculine force. OF
course these are my ambitions. can
not tell you how FAR they will ever be
realized" Miss Sprague added that
she might not make her start In this
country, but wished to go to England,
where she and her mother had great
many friends. Mr.. Irving, she said,
had promised her all the assistance In
his power. Mrs. Sprague has been In
Europe this summer, but Is expected
home In very few days.
~.
Washington is getting to be known
as the Convention City, says Wash.
ington correspondent of the New York
Sun. Washington at any time of the
year Is beautiful city to visit, and
those who have not seen 1t, but form
their estimates from what they have
seen in other cities. have great deal
to learn. Your average citizen has
seen so much Of business, heard the
roar Of manufactures, the clatter of
railroads, and the pandemonium of
stock exchanges until he is tired of
them. To come Into beautiful city
dedicated to more quiet pursuits, where
on all sides are fine buildings. luxurl.
ant parks, and streets over which his
carriage may roll as If 1t were on glass
gives him feeling as though he had
been transported to another world. Be.
sides, here, of course, over and above
all things that the eye may see or the
ear hear, are the traditions of greatness
and eloquence In the past and the ex
citements Of political intrigues and am
bition In the present. Mean.
while those few of Washing
toms citizens who may be credited
with enterprise are greatly disturbed
over the fact that the city Is very
poorly supplied with hotel accommO.
dations, and has no hall which will ac
commodate even the most ordinary
audience. The national conventions
that have met here this year have had
TO take their chances between theatri
cal performances In the National The.
atre, or else be content with Willard
Hall, which is a little, narrow, dlngy
auditorium, that would not be toler.
ated In q Afthrate Dakota village. In
short, there are any number of towns
In the West, with not over 5000 Ia
habitants, that have better public halls
than Washington, and many of them
have far better hotel accommodations.
A movement is on foot now to secure
one of the National political conven
tions next year, and in order to do so
1t must be shown that Washington
has building sufficiently large
TO accommodate the large crowds
that assemble. The new Pension
hall is large enough to accommodate
the largest audience that ever entered
the Exposition building In Chicago,
but II is hardly fit for the purposes of a
National Convention, and It Is ques.
tion whether 1t would be proper to
interrupt the course of public business
by using 1t for any such purpose. 1t
Is now proposed to take one of the
large market buildings In the upper
part of town and convert 1t into con
vention hall II necessary. Neither of
the great parties has ever held one OF
its great National Conventions In
Washington, and If one of them should
do so 1t Is not unlikely that both,
either next year or in 1902, would meet
here.
~
Says "Scawell Sydney" In the New
York Mail and Express: Formerly the
lobbyists were the first people at the
Capitol building in the morning and
the last to leave II at night But
although they are still seen there, it is
no longer their stamping ground.
Members of Congress who consent to
talk with them at all will not have any.